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Sarah Wallin Huff

Stream-of-Consciousness Composer

History of Technology in Music

This undergraduate GE textbook is a survey of the technological, cultural, and philosophical forces that have governed music advances across time.

Publisher: Great River Learning

ISBN 9781644961957

HOW TO PURCHASE:

  • To purchase your own copy, select “No Access Code? Purchase access now” at this website.
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  • Next, select “Cal Poly Pomona” as the Institution, and “History of Technology in Music” as the Online Publication:
  • Finally, you may select any section of MU3100 that has “Wallin Huff” listed next to it.
  • After making these selections, you will be guided through creating a Great River Learning account, by which you’ll always be able access and interact with this textbook for as long as it stays in publication.

Product Details

The history of technology’s use in music begins as early as 40,000 years ago, when Paleolithic man created a flute out of a bone from a bird’s wing. Music technology is more than electricity, binary code, recording, or the Internet. It is the long pattern of humankind observing our surroundings and finding ways to adapt them in order to produce an organized set of sounds we call music. Music’s definition and value changes over the centuries, across societies, and in response to technological advances. This book is a survey of those musical, cultural, and philosophical forces that have governed these advances across time.

In this course:

  • Students will develop an understanding of the role of physics, acoustics, and technology in music throughout history
  • Students will understand the cultural and philosophical forces that underlie technological innovation
  • Students will become familiar with ways in which technologies influence society in both expected and unexpected ways
  • Students will become familiar with a broad range of music through the ages, from several traditions
  • Students will become familiar with important historical debates about the role of technology – debates that continue to this day

Table of Contents

UNIT 1: USEFUL MUSIC AND MUSIC TECHNOLOGY TERMS
UNIT 2: ANCIENT MUSIC, MACHINES, AND PHILOSOPHIES
UNIT 3: MUSIC IN THE WESTERN MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE PERIODS
UNIT 4: HISTORY OF MUSIC NOTATION
UNIT 5: HISTORY OF PRINTING AND MUSIC PUBLISHING
UNIT 6: OPERA AND ACOUSTIC MACHINES
UNIT 7: SELF-PLAYING INSTRUMENTS
UNIT 8: ELECTROPHONES
UNIT 9: BROADCASTING AND MASS MEDIA
UNIT 10: HISTORY OF SOUND RECORDING TECHNOLOGY
UNIT 11: COMMERCE AND THE MARKETPLACE
UNIT 12: SAMPLING
UNIT 13: MUSIC IN FILM AND VIDEO GAMES
UNIT 14: THE INTERNET AND THE FUTURE